I'm looking to get into PC gaming and I'm thinking a gaming laptop might be the best fit for me. I don't have a ton of extra space in my apartment for a desktop and using my TV is difficult since I live with my girlfriend and can't always tie up the TV. My budget is around $1000-1500. I don't really care about battery life since I'll mainly be using it near an outlet. I'm also not looking to run top of the line graphics. Mainly smaller games and stuff like Darkest Dungeon, Enter the Gungeon, and Stellaris. I would like something that will be good for a few years though. If anyone has any I advice I'd appreciate the input.

Thanks

Based on some searching on Newegg, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 (80NV0026US), ASUS ROG (GL752VW-DH74), and the MSI GE Series GE72 Apache Pro-070 seem to be what you're looking for in terms of price the given price range and how long you can possibly use them. They can all be equipped with an Intel Core i7 6700HQ, 16GBs of RAM, and a mix of a mechanical hard drive and an SSD. As for the video card, the Lenovo IdeaPad and ASUS ROG are both equipped with 4GB GTX 960Ms which are good enough the handle the games you mentioned and then some, but the MSI Apache Pro-070 has a GTX 970M which should let you get into more graphically demanding games (though not the the level of it's desktop counterpart) and in turn has more legs to it. As for a laptop that's more on the side of 'good enough' to handle the games you mentioned, I'm looking at the ASUS FZ50VW-NS51 which is equipped with a pretty usable i5 6300HQ and goes for less than $1,000, but apparently the reviews are saying that enabling it's GTX 960M as the display default is troublesome.

So with that said, I don't have any specific laptop recommendations for certain demands in mind as I do for individual components because I can put a desktop together, but hopefully my hour or so of seeing what out there can at least help give you an idea of what to look for: pretty much something with a reasonably fast quad-core i5 or an i7 (as some laptops have less powerful dual-core variants that usually end with a "U" in it's model name with mobile Intel CPUs), a GTX 960M or 970M, at least 8GBs of RAM, and whatever SSD and HDD configuration you want that's offered.

Thanks a ton! I'll look into those and see. I really wish I had the space for a desktop especially with the new Nvidia cards that just got announced. Plus its been 10 years since I've built a PC and I miss the fun.

Others can probably speak to the gaming laptop market than I can, but just to throw this out there, I would check out a site like Game Debate regarding the system requirements and optimal recommending specs when you look more at specific models. (There have to be a dozen sites like this. Game Debate was just first one that came to me by name)

For the most demanding game you are currently interested in, I would put in all of the hardware specs and see how each component favors (Is the CPU powerful enough? Is the graphics card above or near the recommend specifications?, etc.) Out of the games you listed, the most demanding is Stellaris, and the Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 above exceeds the recommend specs, so a laptop on or around those specs should do nicely. And maybe this is me not being in the loop on laptop PCs, but the Lenovo seems like a particularly good deal.

Look into Mini ITX before settling on a laptop. You will pay twice as much for three times less the performance if you go with a laptop.

The others have given pretty good tips, I'll just share that you should watch out for heat distribution and case quality because they matter a lot for its longevity. It's a little harder to quantify, so reviews help.

Also, since you're not looking for play games requiring high performance, maybe look into older models that you can get for cheaper if you're not too fussed. I've been using a laptop from early 2013 (with a GTX 670M) and and it's still doing alright with the games you mentioned. Not saying a 3-year-old model is good enough, something with components from one year past could let you get extra advantages in exchange for some performance.

If you're not going to be moving the laptop around & it's on desk you should be able to fit a smaller size desktop PC.

get a steambox lol (just kidding) , well a small form factor pc , will be a tiny bit more clunky than a laptop but alot more cost effective , you could have an enclosure that clamps onto the back of a monitor etc..or one of those ones that looks like a gamecube.

I wouldn't want to limit your future game choices but from the games you listed i think you'd be fine with integrated graphics (or the cheapest available graphics card)

or you can get an overpriced laptop to irradiate your balls with. (or as suggested a several-year-old model that fits your performance needs)